Alliance

by Timothy L. Cerepaka

  “Do you think I care?” says Jornan in exasperation. “Or do you not realize that we have a strict deadline to meet?”

  “I just think I'm tired of working for you,” says Rok. He begins listing his grievances off his fingers. “First, you're demanding and unappreciative of our hard work. Second, you never pay us well enough to put up with your crap. And third—”

  Jornan raises her right hand before Rok can finish complaining and the ring on her middle finger glows red. While I am not a Delanian witch or wizard myself, I have done enough research to know that a glowing skyras ring means that it is in use.

  As soon as the ring finishes glowing, Rok stops speaking. He stares blankly at nothing for a few seconds, as if something has caught his attention. I look to see what he's staring at, but I see nothing but the floor.

  Then Rok begins to hyperventilate and back up. He is so terrified by whatever he sees that he trips over his own feet and falls on his behind, but he keeps crawling away even then. I still see nothing coming after him; his fellow dwarves are simply staring at him in confusion, while Jornan watches with an amused expression on her face.

  Then Rok begins screaming, “Get away from me, you beast! Get away, or I'll—”

  He doesn't finish his sentence because he then curls into a ball and begins sobbing and kicking at whatever he thinks he sees. He grabs at his long beard and pulls at it, screaming something almost incomprehensible about how the thing wants his beard. One of his fellow dwarves looks away in disgust, but the others continue to watch and stare as if this was the most horrifying thing they have seen in their lives.

  I feel no horror at this sight, but I notice Sir Alart's heart rate increase and his sweat going down his temple. I know enough about Sir Alart to know that he dislikes criminals, but apparently he has enough empathy left in him to feel disgusted by this display of horror.

  The spectacle is over as quickly as it began. Rok now lays on the floor, panting like he has run ten miles in a minute, while his fellow dwarves stand around and look at each other uneasily, none of them making eye contact with their fallen friend.

  Jornan, on the other hand, appears to be the only organic being in the warehouse to be entirely unaffected by Rok's morbid display of fear. Mobile Database records indicate that Jornan has a severe lack of empathy, indicating possible sociopathy, though Xeeonite criminal psychologists disagree.

  “What are you idiots staring at?” Jornan snaps at her other minions, who start when they hear her voice. “Get back to work. Rok will be all right in a few minutes. He just needs to take some time to remember why I'm the boss and he isn't.”

  Her other minions do not even hesitate to resume working. In fact, they work harder and more efficiently than before, hauling their crates into the Portal quicker than they did earlier. I have never thought that fear to be a great motivator before, but perhaps that is another thing about organic beings that I don't understand.

  Then Alart nudges me and I look at him. He holds his communicator up and says, “Think it's time to attack?”

  I nod. “Yes. We will take advantage of Jornan having taken out one of her own men for us. It should make it easier for us to defeat the rest.”

  “All right,” said Alart. He raises his communicator up to his mouth and speaks into it, but in a very low tone so neither Jornan nor her minions below can hear us. “Everyone in position, attack now.”

  We wait for a response from everyone; however, there is no answer, not even from one of the Knights. That is odd. The plan is for everyone to attack as soon as Alart orders them to. That no one responds at all makes no sense.

  “Men?” Alart repeats into the communicator, the worry in his voice rising with the tension in his body. “Sir Yaron? Sir Gako? Is anyone there? Hello? Lady Waya?”

  Again, there is no response. The communicator is as silent as if it has been turned off, but I know it is active because the green glowing light that signals its activation is on.

  Alart looks at me in worry. “What's going on? J997, do you know what the problem is?”

  “Without access to their specific communicators, I cannot say for certain what the problem is,” I explain in a low whisper. “Did you make sure that everyone's communicator was on?”

  “I did,” says Alart in annoyance. “I double-checked to make sure that everyone had their communicators on. And yes, before you ask, I made sure they all knew how to use them as well.”

  “I will try connecting with them,” I say. “I know the frequency their radios are tuned to, which is a frequency I have access to.”

  I go silent, concentrating on connecting to the Knights. Searching … searching … searching … connection fails.

  “Hmm,” I say. “Perhaps there is something in this warehouse that is blocking radio signals. It is likely magical, whatever it is, because you Delanians rarely use technology to achieve these kinds of feats.”

  “Does that mean we're on our own?” says Sir Alart. He swears. “Let's retreat. Head back out onto the roof and try to contact everyone again. Maybe the roof is somehow blocking the signal. We can do that because no one even knows we're here yet, so we technically still have the element of surprise on our—”

  He is cut off when the catwalk we are on shakes under our feet. We both grab the bars, but it is useless because in the next moment, the catwalk falls out from under our feet. Sir Alart falls, but I try to activate the jets in my feet to keep afloat, although as Sir Alart falls he grabs onto my ankles and we both fall to the floor below.

  Sir Alart hits the floor before I do, and I land on top of him. Sir Alart groans under me, while I look around in time to see Jornan's dwarves surround us, drawing out their weapons; small battle hammers, double-bladed axes, and bronze knuckles. None of those weapons are very high-tech; however, there are enough of those dwarves surrounding us that they do not need high-tech weapons to kill us.

  Sir Alart and I scramble to our feet, drawing our own weapons out to defend ourselves, even though I run the numbers and realize that we cannot defeat them all on our own. We stand back-to-back, carefully watching the growling and angry-looking dwarves who look more than ready to kill us.

  Jornan walks up at that moment, just outside of the dwarf circle, holding up one of her rings, a blue one, which glows softly in the dark warehouse.

  “Did you two honestly believe I didn't expect you Knights to try to track me down?” asks Jornan in an amused voice. “Or that I wouldn't ruin your surprise by using one of my rings to make the catwalk fall apart under you? I'm not that much of an idiot, though I will admit that I didn't expect you to have brought along one of those stupid J bots from Xeeo with you.”

  “Did you also block off our communicators?” asks Sir Alart, brandishing his silver-white sword at the dwarves, though it only drives them back temporarily, because they then return to their original positions, looking angrier than ever.

  “That I did, Sir Knight,” says Jornan as she stops just outside of our circle of dwarves. She raises all ten of her rings and flexes her fingers. “It was a simple task, casting a spell that blocks all communication between here and the outside, but sometimes the simplest spells are the best, wouldn't you say?”

  “Miss Jornan, you are still under arrest,” I respond, resting my finger on the trigger of my PRB. “You and every dwarf here are under arrest for the illegal possession and smuggling of super speed drugs.”

  “J997, is that really what we should be focusing on at the moment?” asks Sir Alart. “Not, you know, figuring out how to survive against these criminals when we're so badly outnumbered?”

  “Your Knight friend has a good point,” says Jornan. “We know that we are all going to jail if we get caught. That's why I am going to have my men here take you two apart piece by piece.”

  She gestures at her dwarves and snaps, “What are you idiots standing around wasting time for? Kill these two and make it quick. We don't have time to waste killing these fools, as fun as it would be to drag out their death
s.”

  ***

  Chapter 2

  The dwarves move in on us, swinging their weapons with the ferocity of a barbarian horde. I fire my PRB at one, which knocks him out, while Sir Alart swipes at another criminal with his sword, knocking that dwarf's battle hammer out of his hands and causing the criminal to curse in Dwarfish, though I pay no attention to it because of the other dwarves still moving toward us.

  I aim my PRB again and fire, but the dwarves must have seen what happened to their comrade earlier, because they scatter before my laser can hit them. One of the dwarves jumps at me from the side, swinging his ax at me, but I dodge it by stepping aside, allowing the dwarf to smash his ax against the stone floor.

  But then another dwarf swings his hammer at me, striking me in the shins. I feel no pain, but the force of the blow does knock me off-balance, forcing me to swing my arms through the air in order to regain my balance. This leaves me open to attack from his allies, who move in with their hammers and axes, yelling and screaming obscenities at me in Dwarfish, but I choose not to translate them because that would distract me unnecessarily.

  I stagger backwards out of their reach, their weapons missing me by mere inches. I take aim with my PRB again, but then my sensors pick up another dwarf coming at me from the right. Before I can turn to stop him, his ax comes flying at my hands and knocks my PRB out of them, sending it skittering across the floor out of my reach before another dwarf steps on it with his foot, smashing it in half and effectively making it useless.

  Two more dwarves come at me, one from behind and another from the front, but they are under the mistaken belief that because I am unarmed, I am no longer dangerous. I am about to prove them wrong.

  I tap my chest, sending a signal through my body. An electrical barrier erupts from my form about three feet on every side. The barrier is a defense mechanism all J bots have, one we rarely use, but when we need it, it's always there and always useful.

  The dwarves who come at me run into the barrier and get electrocuted. They scream in pain and fall to the ground, while the other dwarves stand back to avoid suffering the same fate as their comrades. They look like they want to run, because they clearly have no way to deal with my barrier, but they also don't want to suffer Jornan's wrath (though I do not see Jornan anywhere, oddly enough).

  Then the dwarves run around me. I turn around and see that they are running toward Sir Alart, who I had almost forgotten about during the struggle. He is fighting two dwarves at once, using his sword to block their hammers and axes. His sword glows, probably from the skyras energy flowing through, because I see a cord running from his metalligick armor to the handle of his blade.

  But as good a fighter as Sir Alart may have been, he is outnumber by the remaining dwarves. I see their plan now. They know they can't touch me while I use this barrier, so they are going after Sir Alart, who they can touch, instead.

  Because we are allies, I cannot allow the dwarves to murder Sir Alart. I drop the barrier and point my fingers at the dwarves rushing to kill him. I unleash electric bolts from my fingertips, which strike the dwarves in the backs and cause them all to fall to the floor, stunned by the attack.

  “Thanks!” Sir Alart shouts my way as he continues to fight the remaining dwarves. “Now are you just going to stand there or are you going to come and help me?”

  I take a step forward to help, but then my sensors warn me of a sudden spike in skyras energy behind me. I jump to the side, avoiding a rock spire that bursts through the floor where I stood, which sends up bits of wood and stone through the air. The spire would have impaled me if I had not moved, though I do not know where it comes from until I look and see Jornan standing on top of one of the nearby crates, her rings glowing on her fingers.

  “Lucky,” Jornan sneers, raising her hands above her head as energy crackled from her rings. “But you won't be so lucky when I fry you like a fish.”

  Once again, her skyras levels spike, this time almost going off the charts. A moment later, lightning bolts fire from her rings, thundering through the air toward me.

  As quickly as I can, I tap my chest again and my electrical barrier roars to life once more. As soon as it does, the lightning bolts collide with the barrier.

  Warning! Barrier rapidly draining power supply. Switching to power-saving—

  Denied! Divert full power into maintaining barrier against attack. Automatic switch to power-saving overridden.

  Affirmative. Rerouting full power into barrier.

  But even as I do that, Jornan's lightning bolts grow stronger and stronger, striking against my barrier with more force than I expected. Even diverting my full power into the barrier is barely enough. Xeeon crystal rapidly draining. Currently at 51%, but is unlikely to stay at that level for long.

  Must think of some way to stop Jornan's assault. Almost impossible. With full power diverted to barrier, thought processor is slower than normal. Power at 42%. Still dropping. And fast.

  Quickly search Jornan's files in mobile Database. Search for weaknesses. Files claim most of Jornan's magical abilities unknown. Not helpful.

  Power overload imminent. Thirty-two percent. Sending message to Database. Error! No connection to Database in Dela. Cannot communicate with Knights outside of warehouse.

  “Die, you stupid clicker!” Jornan yells, her voice loud enough that I can hear it even over the sound of her lightning bolts striking my barrier. “Take this!”

  Warning! Barrier about to go down! Barrier—

  A loud shattering noise, like a glass window breaking, erupts in my audio receptors and I find myself flying. Limbs unresponsive, I fly through one of the windows of the warehouse and crash into the street outside.

  The sudden impact against the ground scrambles my senses. I do a quick scan to ensure that all of my systems are still in operating order, but discover that my power level is now at 22% and my left leg is inoperable. Power level falling fast.

  I look around my surroundings and see the warehouse before me and the warehouse behind me. Audio receptors pick up sounds of Sir Alart still battling the Smugglers inside, while Jornan's laughter—louder than normal—can be heard above the crackling of her lightning bolts.

  I struggle to rise to my feet in order to help, but my damaged left leg makes that impossible. I nonetheless manage a sitting position, but am unable to make repairs due to a lack of proper tools. Systems scan suggests leg is broken at the knee, which is useless information for me to know because I cannot repair it myself at the moment.

  Need to find other Knights and inform them of Jornan's attack. Am puzzled that apparently none of them hear the sounds of battle within. Perhaps Jornan has cast a silencing spell around the warehouse's perimeter as well? Worth investigating later.

  I grab onto a nearby crate and use it to help me stand, but I am unable to walk because my left leg is still broken. Nor can I fly, because flying with only one leg is too dangerous. Require a walking stick of some sort for me to lean on while I walk, but scanners show that there is nothing I can use within my immediate vicinity to do that.

  Therefore, I lean against the wall of the warehouse, which will have to do for now until I can get my leg repaired or find a suitable stick to help me stand. I hop along on my one good foot, my other leg dangling uselessly behind me, while listening to the sounds of battle raging within the warehouse.

  But my progress is slow, despite my efforts. The street is rough and uneven, with trash littered across it. It reminds me of Xeeon back home, although Ra-Dela has noticeably less litter than my home city does. Perhaps there is a reason for that.

  In any case, I hop along as fast as I can, hoping I can find the other Knights quickly enough to inform them of this recent turn of events. While I cannot guarantee Sir Alart's survival anymore, I can at least ensure that we arrest a few of Jornan's dwarves, perhaps even Jornan herself if we are fast enough.

  That is when I notice someone in metalligick armor lying on the ground not far from me. It appears to be on
e of the other Knights of Se-Dela, which is good, because I did not think I would find one so quickly. All I need to do is tell him about what has happened and then we can use his communicator to tell the rest of the Knights to attack.

  “Sir Knight!” I call as I hop along, raising one hand to my mouth to help increase the volume of my voice. “It's me, J997! Our ally, Sir Alart, is on his own against Jornan and her dwarves in that place. Use your communicator to inform the rest of the Knights about this so we can attack together and hopefully save Sir Alart's life.”

  The Knight does not so much as budge on the ground. He appears to be ignoring me, but something about his stillness makes me think otherwise.

  I stop and continue to lean against the warehouse's exterior as I look down on the still Knight. I activate my sensors, with which I scan the Knight to see if I can determine why he is not moving.

  According to my sensors, this Knight is dead. His heart is not beating, his lungs have ceased inhaling and exhaling air, and his throat appears to have been slit by some kind of knife, although I am unable to determine what kind of knife was used to kill him.

  In addition, I spot his communicator next to him. It has been irreparably crushed into pieces, appearing as if an individual of great weight had stepped on it. I see claw marks in the earth, but they are impossible to identify due to the crashed communicator covering them.

  As a machine, I am incapable of feeling the kind of horror that most organic beings feel whenever they find the corpse of a fellow organic. I do, however, note that this Knight's death complicates the mission and also implies that there may be another reason why the other Knights did not come to our aid when Sir Alart and I started the assault.

  I scan the Knight's corpse again. This scan shows traces of slime, with flakes of leathery Grand Lizard skin on his neck near the slit. Odd, because Grand Lizards are known only to exist on Xeeo, near the Dead Lands. Yet this evidence would suggest that this Knight was slain by a Grand Lizard, which makes no sense at all.